Herman Cain subject of new harassment accusation

CAMPAIGN 2012

In this file photo taken Oct. 31, 2011, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain answers questions at the National Press Club in Washington about sexual harassment allegations. Sharon Bialek, a Chicago-area woman, accused Cain on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011, of making an unwanted sexual advance against her in 1997. Cain's campaign instantly issued a denial. "All allegations of harassment against Mr. Cain are completely false," it said. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File) less

In this file photo taken Oct. 31, 2011, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain answers questions at the National Press Club in Washington about sexual harassment allegations. Sharon Bialek, a ... more

Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP

Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP

Image
1of/8

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 8

In this file photo taken Oct. 31, 2011, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain answers questions at the National Press Club in Washington about sexual harassment allegations. Sharon Bialek, a Chicago-area woman, accused Cain on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011, of making an unwanted sexual advance against her in 1997. Cain's campaign instantly issued a denial. "All allegations of harassment against Mr. Cain are completely false," it said. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File) less

In this file photo taken Oct. 31, 2011, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain answers questions at the National Press Club in Washington about sexual harassment allegations. Sharon Bialek, a ... more

Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP

Herman Cain subject of new harassment accusation

1 / 8

Back to Gallery

Putting a face and a name for the first time to accusations of sexual harassment against Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, a woman stepped forward Monday to say that Cain made an unwanted physical advance on her 14 years ago when he was the chief of the National Restaurant Association.

Speaking before a phalanx of journalists in Manhattan, the woman, Sharon Bialek, said she asked Cain for employment help in 1997 after being fired from the association's education foundation.

After taking her out for a night on the town in Washington, she said, he suggested she engage with him sexually in return for his assistance - seizing her inappropriately when they were alone in a car and running his hand up her skirt.

She recounted, "Mr. Cain said, 'You want a job, right?' "

Sometimes emotional, at other times nervously laughing, Bialek said she decided to speak publicly to support the other women who have made accusations against Cain but who will not reveal their names because of either fear or legal agreements to stay quiet.

Cain's campaign immediately denied her account and said Cain had not harassed anyone, maintaining an aggressive strategy of fighting back and trying to contain any political damage.

Bialek's description was the first time an accuser had publicly alleged physical contact on Cain's part, challenging his descriptions of misunderstandings about jokes and his denials that he had harassed anyone.

The latest accusation was met with further calls from some conservative leaders for him to explain himself more fully, and with a mix of chagrin and defiance from some of his supporters, who blamed the media for fueling the ongoing controversy.

Bialek, who is from Chicago, is the fourth woman known to have leveled an allegation of sexual harassment against Cain. She was the first to speak publicly about it, or even to share her identity, although she offered little corroboration beyond two affidavits from unnamed friends who said she told them about the encounter at the time.

Bialek offered a detailed and graphic account of an incident that sounded to some legal experts more like a description of sexual assault than of sexual harassment.

She said she was fired from the association's educational foundation in 1997 after roughly a year working there, based on what she said she believed to be an unfair judgment that she had been a poor fundraiser.

Bialek said Cain first surprised her by upgrading her room at the Capital Hilton to a suite and letting her know that he had done so after meeting her there for drinks in a lobby bar. She said he then took her to dinner at an Italian restaurant, after which he offered to drive her home, making his approach in the parked car.

As she described it, Cain ran his hand up her skirt, "reached for my genitals" and pulled her head toward his crotch.

"I said, 'What are you doing? You know I have a boyfriend; this isn't what I came here for,' " Bialek said. "Mr. Cain said, 'You want a job, right?' "

She said when she asked him to take her home he did so, "right away."

Although Cain did not have control of the education foundation, Bialek said she had hoped that he could help her find a job at the association or one of its state affiliates or, even to help her get her old job back.

Joel Bennett, a lawyer for another of Cain's accusers, called Bialek's description of the encounter "very similar" to Cain's interaction with his client, who he has said received several inappropriate advances from him.